By keeping a direct link between a vessel and quota, tradable quotas would become a thing of the past.

According to Fisheries Minister Lochhead, if Scotland is to have a vibrant, prosperous fishing industry, then the economic activity associated with quotas should remain in Scotland and not be traded away as is common throughout the EU, and thus a policy must be put in place to protect its vital assets.

Mr Lochhead believes he has strong support from the industry, though there are four weeks to run on the consultation regarding the proposal and the catching sector has not as yet signed up to it unequivocally.

Tradable quota systems are supposed to cut down on discards by allowing vessels which have caught an amount of fish over their quota to buy additional quota and land the catch rather than dumping it. In theory a worthwhile process, but in practice it has led to the bigger producer organisations and speculators to buy up quota and deprive the smaller outfits.

There also appears to be a question as to whether his proposal is legal with the UK Fisheries Minister claiming it is outside the competence of the Scottish government and the Aberdeen North MP – Frank Doran (lab) – secretary of the Commons all party fisheries committee claiming the proposal to be “an extremely dangerous policy which seems to fly in the face of everyone’s understanding of devolution” and that it “ would most likely destabilise the industry “.

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